Each one must build the Wall by being under the Headship of Christ in the Church life

We need to intrinsically follow Nehemiah’s pattern to build the wall by being under the headship of Christ in the church life, having the divine order manifested among us, and having a strong and definite protection and safeguard around God’s house and His interest on earth.

Nehemiah lived in the Old Testament but he is a pattern to us, the New Testament believers.

He first heard and then saw the situation among the people of God, with the wall of the city of God being torn down and the enemy freely walking in; he was desperate, and he volunteered to go and rebuild the wall of the city.

He had a proper aggressiveness, and he spoke to the king boldly, after praying to the God of the heavens, that the king would allow him to go and rebuild the wall.

He realized that the temple of God had no protection, and therefore God could not have a kingdom on the earth.

Yes, God had a house, a dwelling place, and His people were there on the proper ground, having returned from captivity.

But what about God’s kingdom? What about the protection of the house of God?

Even today, we may have a nice house, but if there’s no wall around it, if there’s no protection or safeguard, it is easy for someone to come in and take things as he pleases.

Many people today install security systems in their home and around their house to protect their house, especially since they may be at work or travelling.

What about the house of God? What about the church life today? Where is the headship of Christ being manifested in the church today?

Who today takes Christ as the Head and keeps the organic order in the Body? Is there a protection, a safeguard, a safety around the church, so that the new ones and the young believers would be guarded from the enemy’s attacks?

Or are our walls broken down, burned with fire, and non-existent?

Throughout the centuries the enemy caused very much damage in the church simply because the saints did not build the wall.

There was no building of the wall in the church life, family by family, each in his own area, so that the enemy would be kept away.

May the Lord have a way to wake us up and stir us up for the work of the building the wall around and in the church life.

May we stand with the Lord and with one another, having the heart to work, and build the wall so that God’s house, His interests, and His dwelling place would be safeguarded, and His kingdom would come in.

We need to Build the Wall by Taking Christ as our Head and Live under the Headship of Christ in the Church

We all have to admit that, in the church life today, we enjoy the Lord with the saints, and it is so sweet to partake of the riches of Christ in meeting after meeting.

There is the real enjoyment of the divine life in the church as the house of God, but what about the kingdom of God?

Is there a great and high wall built around the church to protect the saints and the interests of God?

In the time of Nehemiah, there were breaches in the wall, and most of the wall was torn down and burned with fire.

What about today in the church life, do we merely enjoy a sweet, wonderful, and enjoyable church life with the saints, or do we also have the headship of Christ among us?

The enemy knows that, if there is no city of God, if there is no wall around the house of God, the building of God has no safeguard and protection.

The enemy is afraid of the saints building up the church as the house of God, but he’s afraid even more of those who build the church as the kingdom of God.

Once the wall around the house of God is completed, the enemy is completely kept outside, and the Lord has His kingdom.

We build the wall by taking Christ as our Head; we build the wall not only by enjoying Christ but by acknowledging the headship of Christ.

Today people focus very much on the matter of enjoyment; many get married and enjoy the married life, but once this enjoyment is gone, they want to get divorced.

If people get married without recognizing the headship, they will at one point feel unhappy with one another, and divorce may be a strong consideration for them. Oh, Lord.

In the church life we need to realize that, unless we have the headship of Christ, it is easy for us to be the enemy’s prey.

We need to take Christ not only as our life and live by Him, but also take Him as our Head, acknowledging His headship in all things.

We all are under the authority of Christ. Yes, we have Christ’s life, but we are also under His headship.

Yes, we enjoy Christ with all His riches, but He is also our Head, and we are under His headship.

If we take Christ as our head in things both great and small, we will have the church as the city of God, and there will be a strong and high wall.

If we realize the headship of Christ, whether we like the saints or not, whether we are offended or may not like the way we’re treated, we cannot leave, for we have no choice: we are here in the kingdom of God.

The purpose of the building of the wall is to bring us into the proper order in life under the headship of Christ.

For us to build the wall is to be brought into the proper order in life.

The divine life we have received through regeneration is organic and it has a particular order.

Life is organic but not chaotic; the higher the life, the more ordered it is. Life is not organized – it has an organic order.

The more we live by Christ as our life, the more we walk according to the Spirit of life, the more we are brought under the headship of Christ, and we have the divine order (Eph. 1:22-23; Col. 1:18; 2:19).

The church life is not democratic; the church life is not “one man, one vote.”

The church life is not agreeing with this one’s opinion or others agreeing with ours.

There is an order here, and Christ is the Head. There’s no human organization but there’s a life within, and there’s an organic order.

The more we experience Christ, the more our life will become ordered, headed up, not loose or lax and free.

We will have an organic order under the headship of Christ in things that are great and in things that are small.

We need to be under the headship of Christ, taking Christ as our Head, and live directly under His headship.

This needs to take place both personally and corporately.

Some churches are happy and loving, and the church life is so sweet, but there’s little to no order, for the reality of the kingdom is lacking.

Such a church life cannot accomplish God’s economy to the fullest.

The church life is a life of being headed up under the unique headship of Christ. This is our testimony.

We not only enjoy Christ as life but also submit to Christ as our Head. Life and headship go together.

On one hand, we enjoy Christ as life and live because of Him. On the other hand, we practice taking Him as our Head, and we are under the headship of Christ.

If we honour the unique headship of Christ, then in the Lord’s recovery the church will not only be the house of God but also the city of God.

The church will not only manifest Christ as life but also will bring in the kingdom of God on earth, for the church is under Christ as the Head.

We need to hold Christ as the head, holding to Him in all things and being under His headship.

May the church life today be filled with much experience of taking Christ as our life and also of taking Him as our Head.

May we not be satisfied with merely having a wonderful, happy, warm, sweet church life where we all enjoy Christ as life; may we advance to being under the headship of Christ so that the kingdom of God may be among us.

May the church life be filled with order, filled with God’s administration and authority, until one day we become the New Jerusalem, the holy city with a great and high wall!

Lord Jesus, we take You as our life and we also take You as our Head. We submit to Your headship. We want to live under the headship of Christ in the church life today. Oh Lord, save us from being our own head. Keep us holding the Head, Christ, out from whom all the Body grows and is being built up. Amen, Lord, may there be a great and high wall in the church life today. May all the saints learn to take Christ as their head. May we all be under the headship of Christ and keep the organic order in the Body. Amen, Lord, may the church life today be filled with God’s administration and His authority so that the kingdom of God may be manifested on the earth. May we all build the wall and expand, strengthen, and enlarge the church life to have the city-church, the kingdom of God on earth!

Each One must Build up His Part of the Wall by Submitting to the Headship of Christ

In the matter of building up the wall around Jerusalem in the time of Nehemiah, each one built their part of the wall.

House by house, family by family, they each built their portion of the wall.

There was no professional group of builders who did the work of building all by themselves; rather, each family built the portion of the wall that was in front of their house.

No one can build the wall for us; we need to build up our part of the wall.

No one can submit to the headship of Christ for us; we need to submit to Christ’s headship ourselves.

I cannot build for you and you cannot build for me; each one needs to do their own part.

There needs to be a high and great wall built up by all the saints in the church life, and each one of us needs to build up his part of the wall.

The wall separates everything that is outside, everything o the enemy and his schemes, and what is inside, the riches of Christ and all the people of God.

We all need to build up the wall according to our measure and in our portion. We need to be faithful.

We may be in a certain locality in a particular country, and we need to build where the Lord has placed us.

May we intrinsically follow Nehemiah’s pattern to build the wall, each building his own part of the wall.

The Lord needs protection around His testimony.

He needs a great and high wall to be built up by our living under the headship of Christ.

We need to be separated from the world, from mixture, and from anything of immorality, idolatry, and other evil things.

Even more, we need to be separated from religion and from sin.

The higher the wall, the better; the greater the separation, the better it is.

We need to realize that each one of us has his own part to build in the wall, and then the wall needs to be joined together.

In our family life, we need to build a wall. We cannot just allow all things from the world to come in.

There needs to be a wall that protects, separates, and keeps safe the members of our family so that they would be pure in following the Lord.

We all need to be willing to be under the headship of Christ, and we need to build our part of the wall.

There should be no breach. Rather, we need to have a heart to build, and we need to build our part of the wall.

Whether we like it or not, we need to submit to the Lord’s headship. There’s no choice.

People in the world and even many in Christianity today think they have a choice; they exercise their free will to make a choice, and many times this choice is not positive.

Yes, God gave us free will, but He also made us in such a way that we can be one with Him and choose Him.

When we choose His will, when we are under the headship of Christ, we make the best choice.

When we all remain under the headship of Christ, the wall of the city is built up.

But when we get out from under Christ’s authority, there are breaches in the wall, and the enemy comes in.

We need to enjoy the Lord as our life in the church as the house of God, and we need to submit to Christ’s headship in the church as the kingdom of God.

Lord Jesus, we want to be exercised, renewed, and transformed in our will so that we may be under the headship of Christ. We take You as our Head, and we want to build the part of the wall that is ours. Amen, Lord, we want to be one with You and one with the saints under Christ as the Head to build up the wall for the protection of God’s interest today. We submit ourselves under the headship of Christ and we do not take any other head. We want to be built up with the saints and together we want to build the wall so that there would be the protection and safeguarding in the church life. Amen, Lord, gain the church as the kingdom of God on the earth, with all saints functioning and working to build the wall!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration for this article/sharing comes from the Word of God, the enjoyment in the ministry, a sharing by Minoru Chen in the message for this week, and portions from, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1969, vol. 2, “The Recovery of God’s House and God’s City,” pp. 383-384, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-study of 1 and 2 Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther (2022 winter training), week 8, entitled, Building the Wall of the City for the Protection of the Church as the House of God.
• Further reading on this topic:
  – In His Christ to head up all things / Is our God’s economy; / Taking Christ as Head and Center, / All is one in harmony. / Christ as Head will be the Center; / God within will be the Light; / Christ enthroned, with God, His substance, / Will fulfill His heart’s delight. (Hymns #981 stanzas 1-2)
  – Satan will be bound and banished; / From his rule will earth be freed; / With Christ’s sovereign reign and headship / Earth will then be blessed indeed. / All to Christ will then be subject, / To His pow’r and to His will; / As the Head and Center glorious, / He God’s purpose will fulfill. (Hymns #946 stanza 5)
  – Upon the throne, the center / Of government divine, / God reigns, and with His purpose / Brings everything in line. / God’s headship and His lordship / He only can maintain / As King within His kingdom, / O’er everything to reign. (Hymns #941 stanza 2)